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A review by justjoel
Waisted by Randy Susan Meyers
2.0
I received my copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway which has no impact on my review.
After reading the author's note at the end, I have a slightly more difficult time pointing out the book's flaws, but I'll do so in the interest of giving an honest review.
This book begins with 7 women of various cultural and monetary backgrounds going to a retreat of sorts that is supposed to help them learn to lose weight and keep it off. However, what they think they signed up for isn't the reality that awaits them.
The novel is told from the perspectives of 2 of the 7 women. One is a white woman, the other biracial. The women face humiliation, degradation, and multiple forms of abuse before coming up with a plan to get out of the situation.
I was disappointed in the way the women were initially presented. My parents were obese, and I have had many friends who have been or are overweight as well. What I know is that there is often more to gaining and retaining weight than simply eating. Sometimes it is genetic, sometimes it is emotional, sometimes it is glandular. But the way this group of women was initially presented, none of the other options were even hinted at. It wasn't until much later in the book that any of those possibilities were even mentioned, and I think that was a missed opportunity.
After the beginning where it seemed time was compressed and we were with the women on most days, the erratic time jumps from the middle to end were irritating. The pacing of the entire story seemed wrong. It felt like the author realized that there was a lot of ground to cover in why women would feel pressured to be thin, and instead of devoting time to each of them, she hurriedly skimmed the surface of a couple of issues and called it a day.
I wish I had liked this better. There was so much potential here. Of the main protagonists, Alice will stick with me for a while, but I'll forget Daphne's name before I'm halfway through my next book.
2 out of 5 stars.
After reading the author's note at the end, I have a slightly more difficult time pointing out the book's flaws, but I'll do so in the interest of giving an honest review.
This book begins with 7 women of various cultural and monetary backgrounds going to a retreat of sorts that is supposed to help them learn to lose weight and keep it off. However, what they think they signed up for isn't the reality that awaits them.
The novel is told from the perspectives of 2 of the 7 women. One is a white woman, the other biracial. The women face humiliation, degradation, and multiple forms of abuse before coming up with a plan to get out of the situation.
I was disappointed in the way the women were initially presented. My parents were obese, and I have had many friends who have been or are overweight as well. What I know is that there is often more to gaining and retaining weight than simply eating. Sometimes it is genetic, sometimes it is emotional, sometimes it is glandular. But the way this group of women was initially presented, none of the other options were even hinted at. It wasn't until much later in the book that any of those possibilities were even mentioned, and I think that was a missed opportunity.
After the beginning where it seemed time was compressed and we were with the women on most days, the erratic time jumps from the middle to end were irritating. The pacing of the entire story seemed wrong. It felt like the author realized that there was a lot of ground to cover in why women would feel pressured to be thin, and instead of devoting time to each of them, she hurriedly skimmed the surface of a couple of issues and called it a day.
I wish I had liked this better. There was so much potential here. Of the main protagonists, Alice will stick with me for a while, but I'll forget Daphne's name before I'm halfway through my next book.
2 out of 5 stars.